ARSENE WENGER said the grilling he took after Arsenal supporters loudly questioned tactics in this lame performance was “absolutely ridiculous”.

It is the second time in just 10 months he has been rocked by fans’ criticism, and he did not deal with it well.

When Wenger replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrey Arshavin and Arsenal lost 2-1 at home to Manchester United in January, he got a chorus of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ at full blast.

It was the travelling fans here in the stand named after Doug Ellis – a man not immune from criticism himself at Villa Park – who voted with their voice this time when Olivier Giroud was substituted for Francis Coquelin four minutes from the end of a cold, dull, rain-drenched game.

Wenger defended himself in the post-match press call, saying a manager of 30 years should not be questioned like this and refusing to say why he took Giroud off, in what appeared to be a surrender to a draw against a team fighting against relegation. Goodness knows what the fans who are snuck into the back of the Villa press room these days as part of another buck-making sponsorship package made of this; but they still wanted a picture in the hot seat Wenger had just vacated.

Not so much – I only managed 1,600 games, 200 Champions League games. So I’m a bit lucky

Arsene Wenger

In the corridor outside the interrogation room – sorry, press room – Wenger said the treatment was not merited.

And when it was mentioned that the Emirates airline’s new £150 million sponsorship money will come in extremely useful, and suggests someone believes he knows what he is doing, Wenger said: “Not so much – I only managed 1,600 games, 200 Champions League games. So I’m a bit lucky.”

Wenger, whose new slogan could be, Fly me, I’m Arsene, said: “I knew about the money before it was announced. It means the people who invest in us believe we are doing things in the right way.

“So it’s first a credit in the way we do things and after that, we try to use the money intelligently.” Criticising Wenger for what he has done in building Arsenal into a premier European football club is drastically short-sighted. But there is an impatience now with the lack of a trophy.

In Villa’s past two fixtures, Manchester United had given them a 70-metre start in a 100m race, coming back from two down to win 3-2; then Manchester City thrashed them 5-0. But Arsenal posed nothing like such a threat.

Villa could even make a case for winning the game. They had an Andreas Weimann strike ruled offside and a Brett Holman drive superbly pushed on to the bar by Wojciech Szczesny.

Wenger did not try to spin Arsenal’s performance as worthy of much more than a point. The 5-2 derby win over Tottenham and the Champions League qualifying victory over Montpellier – surely Wenger knew what he was doing in those two – had drained his players, he said.

“We qualified for the Champions League knock-out stages and that demands attention,” said Wenger. “After that, of course it’s difficult.”

Jack Wilshere was kept on the bench because he is suffering a reaction to his ankle surgery.

He has inflammation of scar tissue in the same ankle that caused him to be out of action for so long, but the damage is reported to be minor and he should play at Everton on Wednesday.

“Wilshere has not played for 17 months; people forget what that means. Seventeen months in a career is massive. But I’m very happy with the way he progresses,” said Wenger.